Another one!
Nice shot, Sora!
Come on, man. You can play better than that.
That settles it.
We're putting two defenders on him.
I can handle him fine on my own.
Huh?
Because I just found... his one weakness.
That runt's one weakness?
Hah, I could've told you that.
It's the fact that he's incredibly short!
Anybody can figure that out with a glance.
Please at least put some thought into it.
D-don't be stupid!
I HAVE been thinking about it!
To make sure that runt can't get in the paint, we should switch to zone defense and...
No. We should just keep it man-to-man.
Huh?
I told you. I can handle him fine on my own.
He's just a tiny bird.
It will only take me...
...about a minute to break his wings.
Where to go? The land, sea or sky?
Ahiru no Sora
I wanna invite you to come along
The pages of our story have started to turn
If you lose your nerve then recycle it
And let it push you past hesitation
Give and go! With the flow
Instincts that are buried deep will always rear their head again
People can't just hide the dreams they once dreamed of
Even if these wings can't fly
We want to spread them wide and embrace the sky
Becoming the people who we want to be
You never know, the impossible could be possible tomorrow
So let's keep up the struggle
Happy go ducky!
Broken Wings
Hell yeah!
Maru High is on fire now!
Sorry, I let 'em get past me too easily.
Don't get all gloomy just because they scored one on us.
We're on offense now! Keep your heads in the game!
Hey.
Tokiwa's got that kid in his sights!
He's not gonna let the shrimp have the ball for very long!
He's gotten serious about stopping me from scoring!
That expression just says, "bring it on."
Well then...
...consider it brought, kid!
Whoops.
He's got a lot of skill, for sure.
I can't afford to let my guard down for even a second.
Shoot! So close!
He almost shook off that defender!
That move would have worked against any normal player.
But Maru High's #11... he's really good.
Sora is pushing him back though, a little bit at a time.
Yo! Don't hold on to the ball for too long!
The shot clock will run out!
What the hell is a "shot clock"?
Uh, rule #8:
"Once a team gains control of the ball, they have 24 seconds to put up a shot."
Quit screwing around! Make yourselves open for a pass!
Tinytown! Pass!
Oh? You're going to pass it?
TINY
Fly!
Keep it up, Tinytown!
Tokiwa!
I knew it.
That's the first time he's missed!
Rebound!
That guy, again?! How many rebounds has he gotten already?!
Uh... 10 of them!
10?!
They're trying to completely shut him out of the paint!
But Sora's managing to outmaneuver the defense!
Just look, he's dodging past him and making his way to the left side.
No.
Sora's not dodging anything.
Their #11 is making moves to force him over there.
He's intentionally pressing Sora on his right side,
to shut him down from making any progress in that direction.
But why would he do that?
That spin you did earlier was really impressive.
But I know...
...that wasn't meant to avoid me.
You were running from... the side of the court that you hate.
Isn't that right?
Go in!
He went for it!
You're not good at making shots from the left side.
And that is an...
...absolutely fatal weakness.
Out of bounds!
Shinmaruko's ball!
Hey Ref! We're taking a timeout!
Kuzuryu High has called a timeout!
Sora Kurumatani.
Birds that have had their wings broken...
...can do nothing but fall.
So that shorty can't shoot from the left side?
Nice job working that out, Tokiwa.
It was simple, really.
Any level-headed player would have used their teammate's screen to avoid me,
and then shot a three-pointer in that totally open space.
But he even didn't hesitate.
He instinctively went to the side where he feels most comfortable.
It's a very common mistake among players who don't have much experience in real games.
Simply put, the fact you're not accustomed to playing
in games is the greatest weakness that you have.
Don't start screwing us over now, pipsqueak!
What the hell happened on those last two shots?!
You're the only one on this team who can score us any damn points!
Hey! Cut it out, you guys!
Those three-point shots aren't as easy to make as you think!
It's you three who should be putting in more effort out there, anyway!
Why the hell do we have to pick up the slack for his screw-ups?!
She has a point, but I know where the guys are coming from.
Until now, expecting every shot he made to go in was like second nature to us.
Don't let it get you down, man.
We haven't lost the game ye-
I was just unlucky on those last two shots!
Next time...
I swear to you that I won't miss the next time!
Sorry to keep you!
Please accept my apologies for being late.
You are Chiaki Hanazono, right?
Holy shit! She came! She actually came! My waiting finally paid off!
But...
...I still feel a bit heartbroken.
For some reason.
W-well hey, how do you feel about getting a cup of tea somewhere?
Um, if you don't mind, I would really like to go to Kuzuryu High School.
Huh? To Kuzu High?
They're having a basketball game at your school today, right?
Huh?
Actually...
...I'm a big fan of Tokiwa on the Maru High team!
Nice pass!
Not happening!
Defensive foul! The basket counts. One free throw!
Too small to handle me.
Your team just looks like a bunch of ants!
He completely forced back the hand I fouled him with.
How do you even get that strong?!
Wait a damn minute!
You just scored a basket, so why the hell are you getting a free throw?!
Calm down, Yasu.
It's because I fouled him.
Any player that gets fouled on a shot is awarded free throws.
If the shot misses, they get two.
If it goes in, they still get one.
Shinmaruko
Kuzuryu
Then, that means...
The two-pointer plus free throw gets them three points.
Keep it up, Chiba!
This is what real skill looks like! Unlike that Kuzu High trash!
"Real skill," huh?
That pass was one of the best I've seen, Tokiwa.
Ever since that Tokiwa guy started to run interference on Sora,
It was nothing much. I'd say your dunk was far more impressive.
our team hasn't managed to score a single point.
Hang in there, Sora.
His moves have started to lose their sharpness.
No matter how much he trained to build stamina,
the fatigue that comes from dealing with stress
is totally unavoidable until he gains more experience on the court.
Basically...
...you're still too much of a rookie to be a threat.
Eat my dust!
This is just getting worse...
...they're not even letting him take shots now!
Sick moves, Tokiwa!
They're wide open! Go and score us some easy points!
This reminds me.
I owe you for that stunt you pulled last time.
And this is the perfect chance...
...to pay you back with interest!
He didn't jump very high! I can still reach him!
No, Sora! Don't!
Defensive foul! The basket counts. One free throw.
Whoa! That was nuts!
He switched up the ball in midair!
Incredible.
He jumped short on purpose to lure the foul,
then used a double clutch to make the basket.
Hell yeah, Tokiwa!
Another 3 points for us!
He stole the ball from Sora and then used it to score 3 points on him.
Sora's not just losing to them in the height department, but also in plain skill.
There's nothing that could be more disheartening to him than that.
Hey guys! It's almost to the point where you're just beating a dead horse!
Don't start holding back now! Drive them so far into the dirt that they never get back up!
I tried to tell him.
There was no hope of us actually playing a solid game.
So, this guy must be Tokiwa.
He plays pretty well, I guess.
But...
Oh, Tokiwa!
...I can't stand the fact that he's got better looks than me!
Hiyah!
#1, defensive foul!
Look at that!
I think that idiot is already on his fourth foul!
What a dipshit. One more and he gets thrown out like a piece of trash!
I told you to be more careful, Yasu!
Sorry.
It's a habit I picked up from karate.
But don't sweat it.
Even if they take me out, I'll be back before you know it.
This is like, one of those sports where you go
to the penalty box for a bit and then come back, right?
Nah. You don't get to come back.
What?!
If you get ejected from the game,
then we have to play the rest with only four players.
Are you serious?
Listen, no matter what happens don't you dare foul anybody else!
If they come charging in while we're on defense, make sure to keep some distance!
Th-that's easy for you to say.
Pushing!
#1 on defense!
Huh?!
H-hold on a second!
I barely even bumped into the guy!
Uh, well, a foul is still a foul.
And that's your fifth, so you're ejected from the game.
Those idiots. The game is totally over now.
Nice job, Kuchiki!
It's easy to bait a foul from a bunch of rank amateurs.
Hey, Ref.
Yes?
Timeout for us.
Uh, sure.
Shinmaruko has called a timeout!
Hey Chiba.
Why call a timeout now?
You're pretty much just giving the other team a chance to recoup.
Don't be such a stiff, Tokiwa. Let them have a break at the very least.
They're so far behind at this point, I almost pity them.
Maybe we should knock ourselves down to four players, too.
Hey Kuchiki.
Baiting that fifth foul was a cheap move. Knock that shit off.
But, come on, everybody does it!
You know there was no good reason for you to pull a foul
from someone who doesn't even have the ball.
And you too, Choji.
When you had that free shot from under the basket, why didn't you dunk it?
Uh, but I...
If you can dunk it then you should dunk it!
Our team has no excuse not to put our best into every play we make!
Quit sitting here and pretending this is a damn walk in the park!
You feel pity for the other team?!
You want to do this with only four players?!
I don't want to hear any more of that bullshit!
We came here to play basketball and that's what we're going to do!
You got that?!
Y-yeah.
You know, I actually quite like that side of you, Chiba.
Huh?
Th-this ain't the time for jokes.
Thank God, a break!
I think we should be done with the second quarter pretty soon, anyway.
There's still a whole 4 minutes left?!
I was realistic enough to know there'd be gap.
But I never imagined it would be this bad.
Welp.
It's time for them to call it quits.
Excuse me...
What's your plan?
Would you like to keep going?
From what I can see, you have no substitutes available.
Goddammit... Is this how it ends?
Not yet. We'll keep playing.
Really, Sora?
It's true that we're down to just four players.
And the gap in skill between our teams may be too far apart.
But they picked this fight with us, so let's see it through to the end!
If we back down now,
then we lose for sure!
I still...
I still... want to win!
Yeah! We're up 44 points at halftime!
Shinmaruko Kuzuryu
These guys were absolute trash to begin with,
and now they definitely can't win with only four players!
Hurry up and go crying home to mama, little babies!
Finally, some down time.
How long does halftime last?
10 minutes.
Can we make it a week, instead?
Listen Tinytown,
I know you wanna win, but aren't we up shit creek without a paddle here?
Not at all!
We may be down, but we are not out!
Hey Chuckie! Are you feeling hungry at all?
If I ate now, I think I'd puke after about 3 seconds.
Yo Nabe! Do you feel thirsty?
I'm dying for a drink, but I ran out of mine already.
Then I'll go buy a new one for you, just wait!
Sorry, man. It's totally my fault this ended up being four-on-five.
There's nothing we can do about it now.
Don't worry about it.
So hey, Momoharu.
Didn't Chiaki used to play basketball together with you back in middle school?
Uh, yeah.
Take a look up there.
When the hell did he show up?
I'll go up there and ask him to do us a favor.
We'll have him join in for the second half of the game and...
Don't bother.
Huh?
I can tell you for a fact that Chiaki wants nothing to do with this game,
especially considering the dire situation we're in right now.
Back in middle school,
our team was matched against the #1 school in the whole league for the tournament qualifier.
Shonan Academy Nakahara
We got absolutely thrashed in the first half.
Then right when the second half was about to start, that punk Chiaki...
He just up and left?!
Yep.
He totally ditched the game and went off to eat ice cream at a nearby store.
When I found him, I asked why he decided to leave.
I mean...
...there's no point if we can't win!
He looks like the type who doesn't give a damn,
but he actually really cares about what people say and think about him.
And there's nothing he hates more than being seen as uncool.
Aw man...
Huh?
Madoka?
You know, you really are...
...a terrible liar.
Okay, let me see your arm.
Ow!
You've got a muscle cramp in your right arm.
Any shots you take with it aren't going to reach the basket.
That's crazy talk! I'm not done yet!
Just look, it's totally fine!
You don't have to keep pushing yourself so hard,
everyone's acknowledged how good you are at this point.
To be honest, despite my size, I thought I would have more of an impact in this game.
But I don't think I could have won against Tokiwa, even if we were the same height.
Sora...
However, I wasn't lying when I said that I'm not done yet.
The match can't end this way. I refuse to let it end.
I know there's still... a way for me to make a difference.
Hot damn! It wasn't even been 4 seconds since the second half started!
Shinmaruko Kuzuryu
They're not holding back even though it's five-on-four!
Hey Chuckie! Over here!
Just one hand?
Up until now, he's used both hands to control the ball and throw in a number of fakes.
He must not be able to raise his right hand, then.
The defense is double-teaming him now!
He was already having enough trouble with that Tokiwa guy alone.
Sora...
Choji. You don't have to worry about defending him outside.
Huh?
He won't be shooting threes anymore.
I'm tired of this!
My arm is too sore to shoot!
Well, isn't that a shame?
I can't help it!
I guess now's a good time.
Time for me to teach you... how your mom shoots a basket!
How you shoot a basket?
That's right.
If you do it my way, then it might even help take some of the strain off your arm!
Seems like he's just playing on willpower at this point.
He's only been using his left hand to do all the dribbling.
Which means his right arm is... probably at its limit.
No way!
I don't wanna take any girly shots like those!
They're super uncool!
There's nothing I can do if you think it looks uncool, Sora.
But even so, no matter how uncool it may seem to you,
I guarantee there'll be a time where you have to rely on it.
He stopped moving.
Is he going to pass it?
When exactly... that time comes...
...is something that you'll figure out eventually, Sora.
The female style... two-handed shot?!
Yeah!
It didn't matter how long you stared up at the sky
You always said that you would never be able to fly
One night I cried wondering how long it would take
Until I could finally reach you with my hands
Eventually I got used to just running away
Until the day I realized that was a weakness
So let's start it all over, right now
The things precious to us were always close at hand
We are never completely alone at any time in our lives
The truth is that you can fly, wherever you want
Spreading your wings to go far higher than anyone else
The more tears that you shed
Then the stronger you become
Let's use those wings to travel the world over
And find a path to a future that no one knows about
Always, always, always
Walking onwards, all of us together
Two-handed?
Are you kidding?! That's how the girls shoot!
Do it again, kid! And this time throw in a curtsey!
Sweet move.
A two-handed shot, huh?
That style definitely lessens the overall strain put on the arms.
And on top of that, it's a real pain to block.
Tokiwa, we're not changing up our defense.
This match... isn't over just yet.
Shinmaruko
Kuzuryu
Ahiru no Sora Next Time: Now's the Time
Next time: "Now's the Time."